Julia’s gaze pinned us like spears.
Arms folded. Expression unreadable.
The hallway was too quiet.
I tried to step back. Kieran didn’t let me.
Not immediately.
He moved, but only to stand between us, his body shifting just enough so that her eyes landed on his back instead of me.
“Julia,” he said, voice clipped.
Julia tilted her head. Her smile was all teeth. “Alpha.”
Her tone made it sound like an insult.
“I trust this… moment was not interfering with Ava’s instructions for the night?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Words abandoned me.
Kieran’s voice didn’t waver. “If you have something to say, say it.”
“Oh, I will,” Julia said sweetly. “Eventually. But now’s hardly the place, is it?”
She took a step forward. Her gaze flicked past him. To me.
“It’s always t
